DREAMageddon: Vote Set for Saturday UPDATE: Going Down

Update: DrewM over at AOS says the DREAM Act is going down in the Senate. It has only picked up one GOP vote, and a number of swing Democrats have torpedoed it. So Harry Reid gets his "the other guys are monsters" narrative, but the rule of law lives to fight another day.

---------------------------------

Now that the tax deal and omnipork are done, Sen. Harry Reid is putting the DREAM Act on the docket for a vote this weekend. We should be clear about what the DREAM Act is. It's an amnesty, an invitation to lawlessness, and an abuse of the American taxpayer. With the individual mandate and ObamaCare, the pork-laden 2009 "stimulus," the bailouts, and assorted other Democratic policies over the past two years, the American taxpayer has run up against an awful lot of abuse. The DREAM Act turns that abuse up to 11.

The DREAM Act Is NOT Limited to Children -- Applicants can be up to the age of 29

The DREAM Act Will Be Funded On the Backs Of Hard Working, Law-Abiding Americans -- CBO failed to assess costs for education, increased levels of unemployment due to the addition of workers to the workforce, and increases in potential applicants because of loopholes.

The DREAM Act PROVIDES SAFE HARBOR FOR ANY ALIEN, Including Criminals, From Being Removed or Deported If They Simply Submit An Application -- Burden of proving inaccurate information on a DREAM Act application is on the Department of Homeland Security.

Mickey Kaus:

You've heard of "comprehensive" reform? DREAM is non-comprehensive reform. It doesn't even have the basic enforcement provisions—employer sanctions and fancy new ID cards—that were part of the earlier, failed "comprehensive" bargain, which wasn't a very good bargain (in part because nobody was sure the enforcement schemes wouldn't be immediately undermined by lawsuits from the same organizations who supported "comprehensive" reform). DREAM is all amnesty, no prevention. Maybe that's because its backers care about amnesty but not prevention.

Essentially, what the DREAM Act would do is it would legalize roughly a couple million people who aren't in the United States legally, without providing any boost for border and immigration security whatsoever. None. This, plus the fact that the newly legalized could in turn bring in relatives via chain migration, makes the DREAM a potential border and budget buster. This, we do not need.